Last year’s federal government shutdown is being blamed for delays in Buchanan’s most recent fiscal year audit, prompting a delinquency notice from the Michigan Department of Treasury this week.
Treasury spokesperson Ron Leix tells us delays with municipal audits are not necessarily unusual, noting communities across the state are required to submit audits within six months of the end of each fiscal year.
Leix said Treasury must review every audit and report any issues back to municipalities so they can be addressed. However, if an audit remains delinquent, the state has the authority to withhold revenue sharing, and a municipality may be unable to secure bond funding until the audit is submitted.
Leix added there can be a variety of reasons an audit may be delayed. In this case, Buchanan City Manager Tony McGhee says the delay stemmed directly from the federal shutdown. He says that just as the city’s independent accounting firm was compiling the audit, the shutdown made it impossible to obtain documentation tied to certain federal funding the city received during the year. That slowdown pushed the audit behind schedule.
But McGhee says residents should not be concerned. He tells us the draft was accepted last week and the audit was submitted to the state earlier this week.
The city commission will receive a presentation on the audit later this month, and McGhee says everything “looked good.”
Also receiving audit delinquency notices this week were the Southwest Michigan Regional Airport Authority and the Greater Berrien Springs Recreational Authority.
